If Longview is getting WVEDA tax-exempt bonding authority, does this give us an argument before the PSC for increased public oversight?

JBK

From the Charleston Gazette:

November 16, 2007 WVEDA allocates remainder of development bond funds

By Sarah K. Winn Staff writer

The West Virginia Economic Development Authority doled out the remaining yearly tax-exempt industrial development bond money to four large-scale power projects Thursday. Appalachian Power Co. was allocated $26 million: $13 million each for the Mountaineer and Amos power plants. Ohio Power Co. also received $26 million, for its Mitchell and Amos projects.

Longview Power LLC, which was given almost $33 million last month, received the balance; $17,183,450 for the Longview Power plant.

With the December deadline looming, the board postponed a resolution concerning the incomplete projects funded by the Economic Development Grant Committee. In 2004, the now-obsolete committee awarded 47 statewide projects nearly $225 million. Last year, much of the money went unspent and the WVEDA said the projects could lose their funding if not completed by Dec. 31, 2007. The resolution will be made at the December meeting to "address the status of the projects that aren't complete and how to move forward," WVEDA executive director David Warner said. So far, about $199 million, or just over 88 percent, has been spent. Just over $1 million was spent in October including approximately $1,700 for the Town of Moorefield's wastewater treatment plant, $24,210 for South Charleston's biotechnology incubator, $457,000 for West Virginia University's Blanchette Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute, and $572,000 for Beckley's The Woodlands and the Raleigh County Airport Industrial Park.

To contact staff writer Sarah K. Winn, use e-mail or call 348-5156.